Hellsing: Blood Bound
by GregorytheImpaler
Summary: This is a short and sweet fiction I came up with on the fly and wanted to write. Alucard and Integra discuss Seras briefly during a game of chess, and with fond memory, the vampire reveals more of his humanity than either of them had expected. Message if you want to tell me your thoughts! EDIT: I'm adding more, as many of you seem to quite enjoy it. I hope I don't disappoint.
1. Chapter 1

Blood Bound an AxS fiction

The icy blue eye, which countless agents and employees had become accustomed to seeing as stern and emotionless in years prior, instead rested with an intrigued curiosity upon the pale skinned Count sitting opposite her. Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing and her bestial servant of mythical power had taken seat at a table in the long since repaired Hellsing Manor. Age had touched her dark skin and time faded hair, and yet the vampire lord's own body remained in the same physical state as Integra had always known it. From childhood to her her elder years, Alucard had not changed in appearance save for the occasional alteration based off of whimsy or circumstance.

A used and dusty ashtray rested beside a chess board, whose pieces were scarcely touched at the moment. Both of their eyes lazily scanned the few pieces which had been moved prior, as they sat in a quiet contemplation. Over the years, even Alucard's usual banter and wittiness had dampened somewhat. Weather it was a result of the now long passed events of Millenium, or because his master had grown old and forced his japes to hold less appeal, none could be certain. Integra leaned slowly forward, sliding an unused pawn into a new position, to which her vampire servant responded by propping up his head on a hand with his elbow rested on his chair's arm.

Alucard let half-lidded eyes hover over one of his bishops, shifting between both and his Queen. "How did Seras do while I was away?" The dark and baritone voice spoke, breaking the otherwise comfortable silence. Integra did not look up to Alucard as he spoke, instead keeping her eye trained on his hand, which tapped on the table as he prepared a move. She raised the brow of her remaining eye with a manner that displayed mild interest at the sudden inquiry. She answered in her typical cool demeanor, "How do you mean?"

The vampire was without glasses or hat, the cascade of long black hair fallen behind his shoulders, a few stray locks and strands draped before his ears and cheeks. His body straightened somewhat as he abandoned his leaning in favor of a proper sitting position once more. "You know what I mean." He replied, his tone rich with both knowing and insistence as he continued. "When that insane Nazi child took me away from you, how did Seras Victoria fare?"

Integra's eye finally raised, looking to Alucard's gaze in an attempt to understand. Her expression narrowed as though she hadn't expected a question such as this. "I'm sure we've been over it several times. You know that Miss Victoria was just as responsible for carrying us through and rebuilding from that nightmare as you were." As she ended her reply, she sat with her back against the backrest of her seat, and folded her arms, nearly mirroring her servant's own body language in kind. Alucard shook his head gently, and smiled with keen amusement.

"No, no." The words came out, almost in amused astonishment. The vampire had imagined that by now his master would have truly recognized his own level of understanding. "Of course we've discussed Millenium and it's obliteration at our hands. I'm not asking how Seras served as Hellsing's weapon in my absence. I asked you 'how did Seras do while I was away?'." He paused for a moment, allowing a minute to pass as Integra processed and considered his words.

"Master." He spoke once more, his pitch and tone becoming smooth and serious. "Integra. I was in bonds since long before you were ever born. I was there and followed you as you grew up and came to inherit your father's legacy. My allegiance to the Hellsing family was thrust upon me." Alucard paused, offering a short laugh of amusement that only he particularly understood. Continuing, the vampire turned his head staring out of the nearby window in the large mansion room.

"Imagine this, Integra." Alucard explained, "Imagine a wild horse being taken in by rope, broken and tamed into complacency. Now imagine finding one that recognizes the security and mutual benefit to that partnership. A partnership built on trust and..." the vampire paused once more, this time for only a second before finishing his words. "Heh. Faith." As these words drifted in the cool air of the wide and open room, the red clad undead laced his hands together neatly in his lap, and offered a hefty sigh to accompany his attempt at wordplay. Perhaps not the clearest or most accurate of metaphors, but it would have to do for the time being.

"Alucard." His master spoke dully. "You are just as strange and cryptic as ever. When we first met Miss Victoria, I recall asking you why you turned her into a vampire. I believe you said that you were developing a sense of whimsy." Alucard smiled an eerily pleasant expression. Eerie because of how natural the smile looked, instead of some smirk or grin of intimidation. The vampire reached forward and selected a Knight aboard the table, tracing the 'L' motion and tipping a pawn of Integra's.

"Perhaps," Alucard responded in kind. "But I also believe I mused the possibility that your humanity was rubbing off on me. So with that in mind, my master... why could I possibly be asking you how Seras was doing during my absence?" The vampire's eyes drifted along the cloudy night sky outside, as Integra's blue stare lowered away from Alucard to the board. Integra never gave much consideration to such things. Boundaries had always been pushed in the Hellsing organization. Camaraderie and friendship were often crossed over, intentionally or otherwise. Whether it was the Wild Geese, or their own betrayer who had been in waiting for so many years. He had been Sir Integra's closest friend before everything went to Hell.

"Why indeed." Integra replied simply. The vampire and his master exchanged a few moves over several minutes in silence. Only the sound of the occasional click from a fallen piece, or a thoughtful breath in the air that hadn't quite garnered enough effort to form a proper sigh. Alucard said nothing, letting his words sit in his master's mind while the clock ticked on, and the numbers on the board thinned. She hadn't realized it, but Integra's pieces had been slowly chipped away, and cleverly boxed into a corner. His Queen stood opposite Sir Integra's now exposed King, trapped with nowhere to escape, and no allied pieces to protect it.

"So why am I interested in Seras Victoria, you wonder?" The vampire lord spoke with a resumed intent and emphasis. "To you, valuable and dear as they may be, your pieces on the board are still your pieces." Integra sat in observant silence, as her vampiric servant lifted his Queen and slowly tapped it against each square on its way to the King it was about to claim. He let the piece sit still just before the king, his fingers holding the Queen's head in a steady lock. "But to me, my master... I see a Queen."

The vampire's fingers lifted his onyx Queen statuette, and gently tipped over Integra's ivory King.


	2. Chapter 2

Clad in the usual yellow attire as assigned so many years ago, the vampire Seras Victoria hovered casually around a wide array of windows overlooking the exterior grounds of the rebuilt Hellsing Manor. She was young, dramatically so when compared to her master, Alucard of course, but even with the relatively few years between the attack on London and the present day, Seras was beginning to understand a little bit about why Alucard ran that line between aloof and bizarrely whimsical.

There was a certain amount of freedom associated with being one of the strongest manner of living dead, and yet there also came a degree of boredom and want. Integral Hellsing was old now, and surely Alucard and Seras wouldn't stay chained into the walls of Hellsing Manor forever, even for being as much of a violently familial ensemble as they happened to be. A whisper of uncertainty passed along the vampiress' face as she considered the idea. No doubt her master had dwelled and moved on from the thought on and off for the hundreds of years of life he possessed, but now it began to process in her own mind.

What comes next? Shall the two vampiric agents of Hellsing carry on the legacy into tomorrow? When Sir Hellsing has died, and lay beneath the Earth, will they continue fighting the random undead they discover hiding in the dark corners of the world? Do they carry her legacy through their unlife for the next ten years? Twenty? One hundred? What if they never meet another enemy half as strong as those in Millennium? Alucard has seen several hundreds of years of technological progression between his days as Lord Dracula, and his servitude. What if the next half a century of unlife takes them into the stars? Are they to be expected to keep their shadowy crusade into the realm of science fiction as it would be known today? What if the Earth is ended in an apocalypse and few others, if any, survive?

'No.' The Draculina mumbled to herself, attempting to force a manner of dignity and optimism back into her mind. True, she had grown considerably. Not only in strength as expected, but in personality and willpower. Miss Victoria stood a far cry from the young, tentative, human police girl she started as. Her lips often bore and angle that shifted between a pleasant smile of genuine content, and a smirk of arrogance and superiority. Certainly a trait passed down from her beloved sire.

As though having been dwelling within the young Englishwoman's own mind, the baritone voice of Alucard erupted from what seemed like shadows behind her, though the room was lit well enough. Sunlight filtered through the windows, playing across the tiled and carpeted flooring. Another thing Seras had gotten used to in what could be called her forced growth spurt, courtesy of Millennium forcing the agents of Hellsing to raise themselves to unmatched levels.

"Seras. You're brooding." The red-clad count hummed. "It's unlike you."

Years ago, she would have jumped, but instead she just released a deep exhale, and turned her body enough to face her master, while her head remained somewhat window-bound, viewing the mild breeze in the foliage, as well as the birds flittering about the overcast, but otherwise pleasant enough sunlight.

"This must have been how you felt, when a young Sir Integra stumbled into you when she was growing up." Seras spoke, giving jest while keeping an honest outlook.

Alucard laughed, genuinely amused and yet not unkind. "Trust me, Miss Victoria. You have a long, long way to go before you get near the kind of thoughts I have." His footsteps echoed while smooth, black boots clacked around her form. Long arms folded upon one another, white gloves locking in place while his famous red long coat met with the wall beside the window sill. His eyes were trained on Seras' face, but she still did not meet his gaze. "Go on then. What is it that you aren't saying? There's really no point in keeping it to yourself."

She knew he was right, of course. And if there was anyone to talk to, she knew that he'd have already been there long, long before she had. Despite his taunting and strange frivolities, she recognized his extensive familiarity with all manner of life experiences. Internal and otherwise.

"It's stupid." The vampiress expressed, voice still steady, but undoubtedly uncertain within her thoughts.

"It isn't." Alucard answered bluntly. "I've watched you grow from that confident, but weak police girl, into a night walking killing machine. A predator that made the enemies of humanity quake in fear. But you're still young. Nobody grows up _that_ fast, Seras."

"Fine." She submitted. "What happens next? Overall, I mean. I guess I never really gave it too much thought, but we destroyed a war machine. We've done everything from save individual people, to towns, to the entire world. Are we supposed to just stick to our guns, even after Hellsing invariably dissolves one day?"

"That's awfully deep, my little Draculina." Acluard cooed in simultaneous play and affection alike. "Do you remember that I was once chained here? Bound and kept in a state of living death, unable to move or think or feel, yet also unable to die?"

Seras nodded, knowing the story of what happened between his binding and subsequent unleashing by the young Sir Integra.

"What do you think I would have been doing if I hadn't been kept that way? Without any doubt, I would have walked the Earth itself, making my own way. Perhaps I would have reverted to the more self-serving ways that I preferred when I was known by another name. Maybe it wouldn't really have mattered, and I would have behaved as we do now. Really, there's no point. Because what happened happened."

Seras remained silent, and listened to her master.

"My point, Seras, is that we are still ourselves. Long after the Hellsing house withers and dies, so long as we stay together, nothing will have changed. Humans age and die. It is the fate of Sir Integra, and all other humans. That is their fate to meet one day, but it isn't ours. When we no longer have anyone here to stand with, all we will have is one another. The day I embraced you and turned you into what you are, is the day we became bound together by our very blood."

Seras gently tilted her head towards Alucard, her expression unchanged, save for the mildest tint of understanding, and a softness of trust and affection on her brow. Her master's arms unlocked from one another, and a gloved hand floated down upon her shoulder. It was surprisingly gentle, in betrayal of the legendary vampire's appearance. Her eyes drifted to the glass panes again, the Draculina suddenly feeling that old comfort she remembered from after the night in Cheddar. Standing, and still appearing quite small compared to her towering master, Seras felt the corners of her mouth curl just a little bit, as the comfort of her masters words and presence gave her reason to have faith in the days far ahead.


End file.
